The Crane Wife - The Decemberists

Today I got hold of the new album from the The Decemberists titled The Crane Wife. And from the fact that I am writing about it, it's trivial to guess that either i was really impressed by it or it is one of things that pisses me off. I will not keep the the stupid suspense till the very end like a prime time serial.
Coming back to the music album, for me this would be the best album this year. They are refreshing and invigorating. I don't (read I am not qualified or knowledgeable enough) like to dissect any song or album and comment about the individual items. For me the whole package matters even the album art. And these guys do deliver it. The acoustic song "Shankill Butchers" was my personal favorite if I had to choose one at a gun point (intended pun. If you missed it check the link). And guess what it's informative too. Shankill Butchers was actually criminal organization in Ireland during 70's and 80's. So providing some drinking-talk topic at the same time should be totally appreciated. The rhythm of all the songs is simple and catchy. The songs were very interestingly sequenced, it feels that they were thinking, and thinking right at least for me. They have a couple of 12 minutes songs, and it needs some ass-power to pull it off. And finally about the lyrics, it was dark enough for me. I would rate this the best album of this year. and in the top 5% of my all time.

Global Warming..

Is there any end to this problem. I have serious doubt. Will there be every a day (in future obviously) that a guy like me opens up the news section and sees something like.. "Global Cooling has to be taken seriously" Damn!! That would be co cool (pun was indented). But sensibly speaking, the proportion of research done on areas/things that produce these green house gases is more than that done trying to reduce the global warming. Forget about the damage already done. With this trend, something has to done to get my confidence back for my earlier dream. I feel rather than asking this question to myself than vaguely pointing it to everyone. I should look at my contribution to this problem. So I am not doing any thing to decrease the warming.. Am I increasing it?? Let me think.. Research-wise I work on hydrogels and cells and AFM. So the processing/operation of these things might cause some bad stuff, but that is same as that of the daily activities like using electricity etc. So I would be somewhere near the national average in this. Not good. So the question here should be.. What should a average working person do to contribute to the cause?

Interesting Proof.

0.9999.. is identically equal to 1.

a = 0.999999
10*a = 9.99999999
10*a - a = 9.9999999 - 0.99999999
9*a = 9
a = 1

neat.

Insteresting things I came accross today...

1) We shrink 1/2 inches duing our life time due to gravity. This is because the cartilage disks in our vertebrate shrink due to the weight as we grow old.

2) Goosebumps have lost the functionality in humans. We have goosebumps when (1)when we feel cold (2)frightened. The standing of the hair traps more air insulates the heat. Secondly, the standing of the furs makes the animals look bigger. Scare tactics.

3) Male Oral Contraception. Some lab in New York found some protien/chemical which temporarily stops the production of sperms in men.

4) Ravi Shankar and Swami Sachidanand were the only two Indian performers at the original '69 Woodstock. (Three days of Music and Peace)

5) And its 'yin and yang' and not 'ying and yang'